This invention relates generally to a rabbit housing and a rabbit housing system, and more particularly to a rabbit housing which facilitates observation of rabbits within the housing without disturbing the rabbits, and to a rabbit housing system which removes the build-up of ammonia and humidity from individual rabbit housings within the system without the need for traditional shelving or racks.
Rabbits are very sensitive to humans. Consequently, rabbits are prone to change their behavior when a human is in view. During an experiment involving rabbits maintained within housings, the visible presence of human observers outside the housings can detrimentally affect the observations and other data collected for the experiment. Presently, sheet metal or other rigid opaque materials are used which prevent viewing of the rabbit.
Maintaining rabbits within housings also requires adequate collection and removal of rabbit dander, urine and feces. In particular, there is a great concern regarding allergic reactions experienced by laboratory personnel when exposed to rabbit dander. Prior art housings have included a perforated bottom which allows dander, urine and feces to pass therethrough. Many of these prior art housings have also included an opaque plastic top, as described above, with a wire bar door attached thereto. A pan is placed below the entire cage to collect materials which drop through the floor, usually a metal grid. Food and water is provided in metal and/or glass containers mounted to the wire bar door.
These prior art housings suffer from several shortcomings. First, although the opaque top of the prior art rabbit housings helps to minimize the behavioral changes of rabbits therein in response to human visibility, the opaque housings also have the undesirable effect of shielding the rabbits within the housings from human observers. As a result, observation of rabbits within such housings is frustratingly difficult. Second, the substantially open nature of the wire bar door within the housing allows rabbit dander to easily pass therethrough, thus causing concern and discomfort for laboratory personnel having allergic reactions to dander. Third, as urine and feces drop through the metal grid floor into the pan below the housing, ammonia and humidity build up within the housing. The increased humidity makes breathing more difficult for rabbits within the housing, and the ammonia irritates the eyes and other membranes of the rabbits. This requires frequent changing of the pan to prevent interference with any ongoing experiment, but the pans of the prior art housings are difficult and cumbersome to change.
To facilitate experimentation involving a number of rabbits housed in separate housings, rack systems have been developed. These rack systems generally maintain a plurality of housings in a single transportable and storable unit. Using such a rack system, a plurality of housings may be easily moved as a single unit, and a single air supply and/or exhaust system may be mounted to the rack for supplying, withdrawing and filtering air for a plurality of housings. Rack systems for organizing a plurality of rabbit housings have traditionally been provided with shelves or racks for supporting such housings. In such prior art rack systems, each row of rabbit housings is placed upon a shelf, generally constructed of aluminum, steel or similar material, and a plurality of vertically stacked shelves can each thereby support a row of rabbit housings within the rack. However, each shelf occupies a certain height within the rack, thereby increasing the overall height, volume, weight and cost of the rack. In addition, the generally opaque nature of the material used for constructing the shelves inhibits observation of rabbits within the housings if the housings are at least in part transparent. Furthermore, the lighting provided to the interior of such housings would also be inhibited because of the opaque shelf above each housing which effectively acts as a shade.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide a rabbit housing which enhances the observability of rabbits within the housing while reducing changes in rabbit behavior in response to the sight of humans and maintaining a dander barrier between the rabbits and laboratory personnel. It is also desired to provide a rabbit housing and rabbit housing system which eliminate the need for traditional shelving or racks, and which allow dander, urine and feces to be easily removed from the housing with minimal disturbance to rabbits within the housing.